Member of the US Senate Elizabeth Warren has said that President Donald Trump's reference to his nickname for her, "Pocahontas," at an event honoring Navajo veterans on Monday was just a distraction from other issues.

In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday night, the Massachusetts Democrat said:

He'd sure like to talk about something else,

The president said:

I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here. Although, we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time ... longer than you -- they call her Pocahontas!

There he was, at a ceremony to honor Native Americans, men who have really put it all on the line to save American lives, to save lives of people, our allies, during World War II, really amazing people. And President Trump couldn't even make it through a ceremony to honor these men without throwing in a racial slur.

Trump has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Elizabeth's Native American heritage claims, including during his presidential bid.

In June 2016, in a phone interview with NBC News, the president said that Elizabeth "made up her heritage, which I think is racist. I think she's a racist, actually, because what she did was very racist."

On Monday, Elizabeth revealed that she had learned about her family from her parents and grandparents, saying:

I learned about my family the way that most people learn about their families. My brothers and I learned from our mother and our daddy and our grandparents who we are. And that's it. That's how we learned it. That's what we know.

When asked about White House press secretary Sarah Sanders' suggestion on Monday that Elizabeth had used it as a way to advance her career, she said that she "never used it to get ahead."

Never. I never used it to get ahead I never used it to get into school. I never used it to get a job. Look, this is just a way for Donald Trump to be able to try to get somebody talking about something other than what he's doing,